Agriculture is a major source of income in Africa; however, untapped agricultural potential has contributed to persistent poverty and deteriorating food security. Collapsing commodity prices for a broad range of natural resources are creating an increasing imperative for African nations to diversify their exports and reduce current account deficits. At the same time, increased food demand and changing consumption habits driven by demographic factors such as urbanization are leading to rapidly rising net food imports, which are expected to grow from $35bn in 2015 to over $110bn by 2025. With a transformation of African agriculture, reversing food imports constitute potential agribusiness markets worth upwards of $100bn for Africa while delivering food security and broad-based income growth. The scale of investment required is far larger than funds available from the public sector; private sector capital is needed, and there are sufficient funds in African capital markets if they can be appropriately mobilized by the public sector.

This event, The Road to Agricultural Transformation in Africa (ATA), serves as a forum for inciting greater private sector investment in the sector. Agricultural transformation will also require combining the resources of a broad set of public actors, and therefore coordination and partnership is essential to achieve it. The event will specifically provide a platform for both traditional and other development partners to support the strategy underlying ATA both directly and in synergy with ongoing interventions. The Strategy helps to galvanize actions on the CAADP principles and the AU heads of State Malabo Commitments.

The objective of the side event is to formally share the Bank’s vision and strategy goals for African Agricultural Transformation, to allow for a wide dissemination of the strategy and greater visibility of the importance of agricultural transformation for overall economic growth on the continent.

Venue : Lusaka, Main Hall, MICC

Issues for Discussion

The Panel will specifically present the highlights and formally launch the Strategy for Agricultural Transformation in Africa. Discussion points include:

What has been your experience with helping micro and small agribusinesses thrive in your country?

What are the biggest challenges facing development of agricultural corridors that link production areas to urban and regional markets, knowing the latter contribute to making locally produced food costlier as compared to imported food?

What new approaches and what innovative financing mechanisms has Senegal taken to attract young people into agriculture, and what lessons do you retain from there?

What should we do and what role could Agricultural Development Banks play in to promote local agro industries that meet the domestic demand for food?

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Africa is simply tired of being in the dark. It is time to take decisive action and turn around this narrative: to light up and power Africa and accelerate the pace of economic transformation, unlock the potential of businesses, and drive much needed industrialization to create jobs.